Scientists find fountain of youth – for yeast

A tweak to a couple of genes combined with a low-calorie diet has boosted the lifespan of baker’s yeast by a factor of 10.

Valter Longo’s team at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, created a strain of yeast that lacks the genes RAS2 and SCH9. The genes are linked with ageing in yeast and have been implicated in cancer in humans.